The Qur’ān is the speech of Allah, Most High. The word “Qur’ān” is grammatically a verbal noun (masdar) meaning “gathering” and “joining”, and also “reading”. Hence, a Qur’ān is that which gathers the chapters together and joins them; that is why it is called the Qur’ān. In this case the word holds a meaning of an active participle (ism al-fā’il). One can also interpret it as “that which is read” (al-maqrū’), since it is read and recited. In this case, the verbal noun takes the meaning of the passive participle (ism al maf’ūl).

Arabic Morphology (علم الصرف) is a branch of Arabic Grammar dealing with word-forms and patterns. It is highly essential for the incumbent student of Arabic to learn this science in order to be proficient in the language.

We are fast to write to our beloved ones, we can write lengthy messages for their birthdays, on special occasions, we can write lengthy good morning messages for them to see when they awake or good night messages filled with emotions.

Supplications (duʿā) has been called the essence of worship for two main reasons. First, by supplicating to Allah, a person fulfils his obligation of calling on Allah, which is understood from the verse “And your Lord says, ‘Call on Me, I will answer you (your prayer)’” (Qur’ān 40:60). This is worship in its purest form. Second, by invoking Allah, one realizes that only He can fulfil one’s needs. The servant who calls upon his Lord abandons hope in everything else and turns his full attention to Allah, bumbling himself in front of Him. This is the essence of worship. Another desires result of worship is to attain reward from Allah. Because there is such great reward in supplication, it has been called the essence of worship.

As the new Islāmic academic year approaches, students of knowledge are moving into the higher years at every Islāmic institute of learning (dār al-ʿulūm). Many are prone to becoming overwhelmed by the volume of their studies and speed of their teachers’ lectures. At this point, they fall prey to making a ‘rookie mistake’ they later realise and regret. That is, the error of taking inefficient notes.

Years ago, I sat in Dar al-Ifta in Cairo reading with a teacher, and he asked, “Have you ever thought why the scholars use the word bāb (door) to title what you call chapters in English?” I responded, “Yes, but I did not give it a lot of thought.”